"or heaven forbid writing a substack" - lol, felt this.
Really enjoyed reading this and felt like it came to me at an important moment. I went to UIUC, "studied" finance, had too much "fun", and ended up as one of the many ambitious but uncertain professionals who fell into consulting. After 9 years in IT consulting (5+ years as a confounder where I worked with a raccoon, as Ben Hunt would say - deciding to cut ties altogether last September), I'm unemployed an at a cross-roads.
I find myself considering starting over to go into finance, medical school, etc. - all of these proven paths while on the side I chip away at monolithic granite slab that is all of my "optionality" - which has taken the form of...a substack haha. And I catch myself glamorizing every path I didn't take, which makes gaining clarity really challenging and creates a feedback loop of self-judgement via hindsight, only making my forward looking path further influenced by any professional/career baggage.
It's hard to figure out the right move when your biggest fear is "being wrong again". Makes for dangerous thinking, especially while instinctively glamorizing the things you don't have / haven't experienced.
Something I'm still working through, so can't say I have a point - but thanks for writing this piece.
"or heaven forbid writing a substack" - lol, felt this.
Really enjoyed reading this and felt like it came to me at an important moment. I went to UIUC, "studied" finance, had too much "fun", and ended up as one of the many ambitious but uncertain professionals who fell into consulting. After 9 years in IT consulting (5+ years as a confounder where I worked with a raccoon, as Ben Hunt would say - deciding to cut ties altogether last September), I'm unemployed an at a cross-roads.
I find myself considering starting over to go into finance, medical school, etc. - all of these proven paths while on the side I chip away at monolithic granite slab that is all of my "optionality" - which has taken the form of...a substack haha. And I catch myself glamorizing every path I didn't take, which makes gaining clarity really challenging and creates a feedback loop of self-judgement via hindsight, only making my forward looking path further influenced by any professional/career baggage.
It's hard to figure out the right move when your biggest fear is "being wrong again". Makes for dangerous thinking, especially while instinctively glamorizing the things you don't have / haven't experienced.
Something I'm still working through, so can't say I have a point - but thanks for writing this piece.
Nick
thanks for the thoughtful real response